The B-52's - Funplex
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CD Details
Artist: The B-52'sEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2008-03-25
Music Label: Astralwerks
Soundtracks:
- Pump
- Hot Corner
- Ultraviolet
- Juliet of the Spirits
- Funplex
- Eyes Wide Open
- Love in the Year 3000
- Deviant Ingredient
- Too Much to Think About
- Dancing Now
- Keep This Party Going
Music reviews of Funplex
Music Review: Some bright spots but not my favorite from them
Rating: 3 Stars
I've owned or currently have just about every original release from the B52's, and have enjoyed most everything, including Funplex. It would be tough to pull off another Cosmic Thing success story, but the writers have the talent so it's not out of the question.
This CD is more techno, but it's the same essential dance disc you would expect from the Georgian Fab 4.
The good - even after so many years, Fred, Kate, and Cindy are still having fun. They have never been accused of taking themselves too seriously, and all the album tracks reflect that. It's nearly impossible to listen to this at work without the toes tapping or the legs bouncing.
The not so good - As a whole, I'm not very impressed with the lyrical creativity of the CD. A number of the tracks have an excess of repetition. While 'white hot shimmy in a Lurex gown' is fun to sing, much of the remaining content for Hot Corner don't show much creativity. Same deal to some extent with Funplex, though you'll never hear the line 'chandelabra in a Wonder Bra' *anywhere* but at the Funplex!
Their tunes have always had a sense of innuendo to them, this time around they made it much more overt, again I sense a lack of creativity. Maybe there was an impatience to write after taking so many years off? If so, I hope they knock the rust off and release another disc by '11 or '12.
Overall, the disc has some ups and downs. Vocally, the ladies do well while Fred is better at shouting the words in exclamatory joy. :-)
I dig the techno beat infusion, it's a nice enhancement to their sound.
Description of Funplex
Along with producer Steve Osborne (New Order, Happy Mondays, Doves) the band have created an album as cutting edge, distinctive & danceable as their debut album in 1979. The B-52's influence cuts a wide path through much of so-called Modern Rock-- from the low-fi efforts of nouveau garage bands and the Retro-Hip of Ultra-Lounge to the very ascendance of Dance music itself. Twenty years and 20 million albums into a career that began as a low-rent lark in Athens, Georgia, the B-52's remain the most unlikely Pop superstars ever. The first band to glorify Pop culture with an almost Warholian sense of purpose, their absurd B-movie style and off-kilter sound celebrated the weirdness lurking just beneath the surface of Americana. EMI. 2008.16 years between albums is a gap virtually unprecedented in modern music, so no surprises that the first question you want to know about Funplex is: how does it sound? Going on the opening track "Pump", you'd be forgiven for thinking not at all: there's Fred Schneider's delirious, delightfully unselfconscious shout, there's Kate and Cindy whooping like dropout cheerleaders, there's the enjoyably garish mish-mash of early rock'n'roll, B-movie kitsch and surfboard funk that's been the group's stock in trade since their emergence in the new-wave boom of the mid-'70s. Deeper into Funplex, though, there's evidence of a new electronic edge, which can be owed in part to the input of producer Steve Osbourne, who's previously worked with New Order and Sophie Ellis Bextor. At times, the presence of dance beats, echoing effects, and pulsing synthesiser make Funplex feel a little clinically handled, like a B-52s remix. But it's worth admission just for the glorious title track, a chaotic cops'n'hippies dust-up at the mall, and the mighty "Ultraviolet". "Keep doing what we're doing cos we're doing it right!" shouts Fred. "Four miles to a breakdown!" shout Kate and Cindy. 16 years on, the party's still going. - Louis Pattison
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